Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
Union Minster of Petroleum has stated that Five state run oil and natural gas PSUs will become corporate partners of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
These PSUs would make financials contribution to ISA’s corpus fund. This announcement was made during the 1st World Solar Technology Summit organized by ISA. ONGC, IOCL, BPCL, HPCL and GAIL are the 5 PSUs.

Notes:
Indian technology major Infosys has announced to acquire the European firm GuideVision.
Guidevision is one of the largest service sector enterprises in Europe, which is into service management consultancy specialised in offering strategic advisory. The acquisition agreement would cost Infosys up to 30 million Euro, which includes earn outs and bonuses.

Notes:
According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia’s economy will contract for the first time since the early 1960s.
The bank had earlier projected that the GDP would grow by 0.1 per cent. Now, it is estimated that Asia’s GDP would decline by 0.7 per cent in 2020 and would increase to 7.7 per cent in 2021. It also highlighted that the GD in India would contract by 9% this year.

Notes:
Oracle has been chosen by TikTok to be its trusted technology provider in USA. In the acquisition battle between Microsoft and Oracle, Oracle has taken a lead.
President Donald Trump claimed that the USA’s Tik Tok user data are siphoned to Chinese authorities. The US administration ordered ByteDance, the parent company of Tik Tok to sell its U.S. business.

Notes:
The Government of India has formed a committee for conducting a study on the origin and evolution of 12,000-year-old Indian culture.
The committee comprises of 16 members with K.N. Dikshit, the Chairman of Indian Archaeological Society as a prominent member. The ministry plans to use the report of the committee in textbooks for the purpose of educational research.

Notes:
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled that tariff barriers (additional tariffs) imposed by USA in 2018 on Chinese goods is inconsistent with international trading norms.
This has come as a severe blow to the US administration. The ruling was pronounced by a 3-member panel of WTO, against the USD 200 billion in levies imposed by USA on a range of Chinese goods in 2018.

Notes:
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package Insurance Scheme for Health Workers has been extended for a period of 180 days.
It is a central sector scheme that provides an insurance cover of Rs.50 lakh to health workers who would have direct contact with COVID 10 patients. The scheme was initially launched on March 30th this year for a period of 90 days. It was earlier extended to a further period of 90 days till 25th September.

Notes:
Veteran scholar of art history, architecture and Indian classical dance, Kapila Vatsyayan has recently passed away at the age of 91.
The artiste was the Chairperson of the Asia Project at the India International Centre, where she was a lifetime trustee. She was also the founding director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.

Notes:
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revised India’s growth projections to minus 10.2% for the current financial year.
This is due to extended lockdown in the country. The OECD released a report titled “Interim Economic Assessment Corona virus: Living with uncertainty”. As per the report, prolonged spread of the virus, high levels of poverty, and stricter confinement measures are the reasons for contraction of the Indian Economy.

Notes:
The 10th Meeting of the BRICS High Representatives on National Security was recently chaired by Russia.
It was held via video conferencing. India was represented by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. The meeting deliberated upon the issues related to strengthening political security and cooperation among the five countries.